Hello Ecommerce Folks,
The Ecommerce industry continues to grow at an alarming rate, and it is easy to see why – because it is so convenient for the consumer. This demand is the reason why so many people (understandably) start their own online stores and in addition to the demand, this can also be a relatively straightforward process as a business can be run from home. This means that the Ecommerce industry is fiercely competitive and those that are not prepared or willing to put the work in will find it very difficult to succeed. Read on for a few effective strategies to make your Ecommerce store more competitive.
Make Improvements To Your Online Store
One of the first steps to take is to carefully analyze your online store and find any ways in which you could make improvements to provide a smooth experience. You need to make an immediate impact on any visitor, but it is also important that the layout is clear, the pages are not too cluttered and that it is easy to get around the different pages. It is a good idea to either ask for feedback from existing customers or ask someone that you know to view the store and highlight areas where improvements can be made (this is difficult when you designed the store).
Improve Product Details
Online shopping brings many benefits to the consumer, but the one drawback is that it is impossible to examine and hold the products. This means that you need to provide excellent product details which will give the consumer a clear idea of what the product is like. As opposed to the generic information for the products that you sell, make sure that you have:
- High-quality photographs from every angle
- A product video
- Unique and detailed product descriptions
- Customer reviews
- Augmented reality apps (if possible)
Live Chat
Following this, people will often have questions about your products and being able to answer these questions immediately will give you an edge over many other stores. Live chat allows you to easily communicate with visitors to your store and convert them into customers, plus this improvement in customer service will help to build your reputation as an ecommerce store (customer service is an area that many struggle with).
Smooth Checkout Process
The checkout process needs to be smooth, fast and secure otherwise people will abandon their carts. This means that you need to invest in a high-quality POS system that can streamline the checkout process while also improving business efficiency through additional software features like inventory management, CRM, integration to third-party software and reporting and analytics.
Affordable & Flexible Shipping
Leading on from this, you need to be aware of the consumer expectations when it comes to shipping. Shipping costs are one of the primary reasons for shopping cart abandonment, so it is worth having affordable and free shipping – a smart way to offer this is to offer free shipping on orders over a certain price. Some people would prefer to have free shipping and wait a few days for their order, but there will also be others who are willing to pay for next-day delivery, so it is helpful to have a few options available to people as this can give you a competitive edge. if you are on Magento Merchant, You may also hire certified Magento Developer to create a custom shipping method for your Magento store or explore our newly launched Magento 2 order tracking extension to enhance your store shipping.
Digital Marketing
One of the biggest challenges that eCommerce stores face is competing with the larger, household-name online stores. This will always be difficult but digital marketing can help you to improve your visibility online and direct more people to your online store. Email marketing is particularly helpful with this industry so you will want to gather as many email addresses as possible and then create regular, engaging emails that keep people updated and provide discounts.
Social Media
The search engines can be difficult to crack as a smaller Ecommerce business which is why social media is such a valuable tool. You can use social media to advertise your products, communicate with your target customer and show your expertise. You need to be active across these channels and share content which is of value to your target customer, respond to messages and comments and encourage people to like and share your posts to increase brand awareness.
Offer A Personalized Shopping Experience
Offering a personalized shopping experience can be a fantastic way to compete with the larger stores that often struggle to do this. This will include using customer’s names, making personalized offers, having a friendly tone in all forms of communication and small touches like thank you notes with orders. These small touches that humanize your brand can make a big difference to modern-day consumers who often become frustrated with the larger, faceless corporations that can be difficult to engage with.
Sell Trending Products
It is hard to succeed in the Ecommerce world if you are not selling trending products that are in-demand. It is important to have a theme for your store so that you can identify a target customer and keep this group in mind with all decisions, but you also need to sell products that people want, so you should not be too niche.
Consider Subscription Services
Subscription services are rising in popularity and can be a brilliant move for an Ecommerce store because it creates a consistent stream of income each month. This will depend on your store and the products that you sell, but it could include subscriptions for items such as:
- Books
- Music
- Clothing
- Food
- Drink
Analyze The Competition
In such a competitive industry, there will always be fellow online stores that you can learn from. Keep a close eye on the competition to see what they are doing well, areas in which they could improve and any big changes that they make. This will help you to improve your own store, find gaps in the market and make timely decisions that will benefit your company and help you to stay competitive.
Over to You!
There is the potential for great success in the Ecommerce industry, but this is a fiercely competitive and saturated market, so it is hard to stand out. Follow these steps and you will compete at a much higher level and start to build a successful business.